Memphis Tigers edge Rutgers for 20th win

Memphis’ Shaq Goodwin battles Rutger’s Malick Kone for a rebound as Wally Judge (left) and Kadeem Jack move in to help during the first half Thursday night in Piscataway, N.J. Goodwin had 10 points and three rebounds, but he also had four fouls.

PISCATAWAY, N.J. — When Rutgers junior forward Kadeem Jack converted a layup to pull the Scarlet Knights within four points of the University of Memphis with 3:45 left, a potential disaster was staring the Tigers straight in the face.

Surely, Memphis, which hadn't lost to a team outside the top 50 of the RPI all season, wasn't going to let this Rutgers squad hand it a third straight road loss in American Athletic Conference play? A squad that had dropped nine of its last 12 games and came into Thursday's contest with an RPI of 194?

Not this same Rutgers team the Tigers trounced by 32 at home earlier this month?

With the rest of the Tigers' guards sputtering offensively, senior Michael Dixon finally answered those questions, scoring six straight points after Jack's bucket to help lift Memphis to a 64-59 win before an announced 5,558 at the Rutgers Athletic Center.

In a game in which No. 22-ranked Memphis (20-6, 9-4 AAC) built an 11-point first-half lead and looked as if it would run Rutgers (10-17, 4-10) off the floor, the Tigers needed all of Dixon's team-high 15 points down the stretch to hold off an inferior team that out-hustled them in the second half.

"Guys have to step up," Dixon said. "Joe (Jackson) and Chris (Crawford) missed some shots that they normally make all the time. So I just took it upon myself to go make some plays, and fortunately the ball went in."

A Memphis team that has been one of the country's best at scoring in the paint this season allowed Rutgers to outscore it inside (36-28) and grab 11 offensive rebounds in the second half.

Jackson and Crawford, meanwhile, went a combined 4 of 18 from the floor and committed nine of the Tigers' 22 turnovers.

Though Jackson finished with 11 points, five rebounds and four assists, his 1-of-10 shooting in the first half was as bad as he has played all season.

It was a good thing, then, for Memphis that it had Dixon to bail the Tigers out.

"Joe had a very poor first half. He looked like he was a Division 2 player in the first half," coach Josh Pastner said. "But the second half he played like he was an elite Division 1 player. This was Joe's worst half in a long time.

"And Chris Crawford didn't play well. Even though he got five rebounds (and five assists), I need Chris and Joe to play better."

As the game turned

Rutgers' Jack punished Memphis inside after Tigers sophomore forward Shaq Goodwin was forced to the bench with a fourth foul with 13:26 left in the second half. Jack had 18 of his game-high 22 points and seven of his game-high 10 rebounds in the second half, pulling Rutgers within striking distance.

Goodwin (10 points, three rebounds) had picked up his third foul at the 14:55 mark, but Pastner elected not to pull him, displaying how reliant Memphis has become on Goodwin on both ends of the floor.

Freshman forwards Austin Nichols (10 points, four rebounds) and Nick King (six points, six rebounds) gave Memphis solid minutes inside with Goodwin out, but the duo struggled at times defensively, which allowed Rutgers to stay in the game.

He said it

"Let me tell you something: Getting 20 wins, you don't take it for granted. It's not a birthright. It is a special thing. I love our players for doing that. They got us 20. That's my fifth straight year for 20 and 14th straight for the program. It's a beautiful thing. It's a lovely thing. God bless America." — Pastner on the Tigers posting their school-record 14th straight 20-win season.

Odds and ends

For the second straight game, Memphis struggled with turnovers, committing just two fewer than it did in its 86-81 overtime loss to Connecticut last Saturday (18). But these weren't a result of high-level defensive pressure as many of their turnovers were against the Huskies. Many of the 16 the Tigers committed Thursday were the result of plain carelessness.

"We had some unforced turnovers and some lackadaisical basketball in the second half," senior guard Geron Johnson (seven points, five rebounds, four assists) said. "I think it was just trying to make home-run plays instead of easy basketball."

By the numbers

10: Joe Jackson's first-half shooting percentage Thursday, when he went 1 of 10. He finished 3 of 12.